New stuff!

Hello! We've been away for a little jaunt down to Worcester & Oxford. We'd had a few extra rehearsals beforehand to try and work out some new material...and we succeeded...and we played it...and we were very happy!
It's great having new tunes to play - a little nerve-racking to start off with, but exciting.

On another note - thanks to those of you who have been in contact to say you enjoyed 'The Durham Concerto'. For those of you who don't know about it, it's a new piece, nearly one hour long, written by Jon Lord (ex keyboard player from Deep Purple, and a real gentleman) for cello, violin, Northumbrian pipes, Hammond organ and orchestra (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.) It's been performed twice - in Durham cathedral (fantastic place to play) and Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, and seemed to go down very well both times.
Following a conductor has never been my strong point, but I think I played more or less in the right place at the right time!!

The Folk & Trad music degree course at Newcastle Uni has resumed after the Easter break, so I'm heading off there in a few minutes to do some work with the 3rd year Ensemble groups. Quite looking forward to seeing/hearing them again - I must have missed them!

Fareham & Gosport Easter Festival

Phew! It was a bit of a stressful day for us on Saturday - we set off at 7am - plenty of time (we thought) to get to Fareham by 4pm...but no.
There was an accident up ahead of us on the motorway, which resulted in it being closed for several hours, and we just had to sit there, waiting...
For the first half hour or so we were joking about how it could be a re-run of our gig at Sidmouth Festival a few years back (when we got there with minutes to spare, abandoned the car in the road outside, thrust the keys at someone who looked vaguely trustworthy so they could park it somewhere, and were on stage doing the first number five minutes later!) But three hours later, when we'd travelled less than 2 miles, we knew it was going to be much worse...

Many, many thanks are due to the Festival organisers and sound crews, who shifted things around, and re-organised everything so we could still play. Thanks too to the other bands who played at unscheduled times, and of course to the audience that waited for us. THANKS!!!

I think in future, if we're playing at the other end of the country we have to give up relying on the roads, and just get there a day early!

Back home in Northumberland the daffodils are out (but looking slightly battered after the farmer's cows escaped and came to live in our garden for a couple of days) the hens are all (4) laying, and the dog needs a haircut...

trip out

I've got a few days at home, during which I am supposed to be composing some music. Deadlines are approaching, but not fast enough...as usual I'm doing anything apart from compose until the last possible moment!
Tonight I've decided that rather than get on with my own music it would be far more inspiring to go and hear someone else's, so we're about to drive up to Musselburgh to hear Mr McFalls Chamber (and friends) performing the music of Martyn Bennett.
Martyn was an old friend of mine (he played on my second album, Borderlands, back in the mists of time when he must have only been about 13 years old!) and his death in 2005 was a real shock. Even though I knew he had been battling Hodgkins Lymphoma for several years he just seemed too young and too talented to just suddenly not be there any more.
One thing about music though is that it stays with us - so it will be wonderful to hear Martyn's music tonight, and great to meet up again with the maverick ensemble Mr McFall's Chamber.
Better get ready to go - the hens have to be shut away, eggs collected (hopefully) and the dog taken round the field.
All for now,
kathryn

DUO CD

It's out! It's available at gigs, and (as of this afternoon, hopefully) from the website...!
It's a no-frills pretty honest representation of what Peter and I do live (and called, appropriately enough, 'what we do')
Hope you like it,
k

It worked!

And I promise not to just talk about dinners in future - I was sent copies of all my old journal entries from the old website and it was a bit embarassing how many of them were about food!
It was funny reading them all - when I get home next week I might see if I can re-post some of the better ones - it seems a shame that they've all disappeared.
Better go and pack my bag,
k

Is this working?

If you're reading this then I suppose it must be!
Sorry it's been such a long time since I wrote, but the website got redesigned and nobody told me what my new password was!
I'm off on tour today with Peter - playing in Salford tonight.
We're very well equipped - he got a sat-nav for Christmas, which should be handy. Peter's present to me was the Good Pub Guide, which I'll definitely be taking - it's good to be able to plan where you might stop for lunch (and a good pub dinner isn't that much more than a horrible service station one, and in much more relaxing surroundings)
Anyway - I'll stop now and see if this has worked.
Hope Peter & I might be playing somewhere near you,
k

Dinners

I've got a kitchen! ...with a cooker...and a sink...it's fantastic!!

After several months of cooking on a camping stove in the living room we have now moved back into the kitchen, where the new rayburn means that there is constant warmth and cooking facilities.

Since we reclaimed the kitchen I've been really busy and haven't had the time to fully appreciate it, but over the last few days I've been re-acquainting myself with the art of cooking.
I've lost all my cookery books (well, I'm sure they're in a box somewhere, but I haven't found them yet) except one Delia Smith book, so I've been giving that a good try-out and have done a beef goulash type thing and also Mexican chilli chicken with tomato salsa. I also suddenly developed a craving for sweetcorn chowder and invented a recipe for that, involving smoked haddock (how ridiculous that it costs more to have it without dye...?!) creme fraiche and fresh and tinned sweetcorn...very excellent! (as my mum would say)

And yes - I know I haven't written in this journal for ages, and that there are loads of things I could be telling you about - but right now I'm mostly interested in cooking!!
Got to go - there's a banana and chocolate cake recipe in the Rayburn cookbook which is calling to me....